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Downsizing Trailer Teaser: Matt Damon Gets Small

The first teaser trailer for Downsizing has arrived. The film, which will see Matt Damon shrink down to miniature size in order to live in a tiny house, has been over ten years in the making. The movie was directed by multi-Oscar-winner Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways), from a script he wrote with his Sideways co-writer Jim Taylor (who also served up Jurassic Park III and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry).

Downsizing boasts an impressive ensemble, which Damon joined three years ago. Alongside the Jason Bourne star in thecast are Ghostbusters’ Kristen Wiig and Spectre’s Christoph Waltz, as well as Laura Dern, Jason Sudeikis, Neil Patrick Harris, Hong Chau and Brigette Lundy-Paine (who recently impressed in Netflix’s Atypical). In stark contrast to the film’s tiny subject matter, that’s a truly massive cast in terms of star power. Not to mention, the film is said to be Payne’s biggest yet, with regards to budget.

Payne has comparedDownsizing to the dark sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror, stating that his film “takes something inherently absurd and ridiculous, but tells it with utter earnestness.” That earnestness really comes across in this teaser trailer, which highlights the film’s aforementioned star-studded cast, rather than focusing in on the housing crisis sci-fi satire at the heart of the piece.

Following in the footsteps of last year’s Tom Hanks comedy drama A Hologram for the King, this cast announcement teaser trailer features the iconic sounds of the Talking Heads’ tune “Once in a Lifetime”. The lyrics seem particularly pertinent to this film, with Damon’s character finding himself “in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife”, but at a high cost. After Damon’s character agrees to be shrunken down to live in a nice house, it can’t be long before he asks himself, “my God, what have I done?”

However, as intriguing as this appropriately tiny teaser is, it only serves to leave Payne and Damon’s fans wanting more. The footage here deliberately doesn’t include anything during or after the actual shrinking process, which is undoubtedly the film's main appeal. Thankfully, at the end of the video, a full ‘trailer debut’ is promised for September 12. Hopefully, that promo will be a little less coy about the main events of the movie.

Of course, trailers for trailers are nothing new, but it’s rare that you see them for films like this – they’re usually reserved for the blockbuster tentpoles. Presumably, Payne’s investors are hoping to make serious bank with Downsizing, if this is how the studio is promoting it.